When the Germans were not making progress on locating the Ark, Gobler and Dietrich suggested that they interrogate the captive American bar owner Marion Ravenwood who had been in possession of the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra, an artefact briefly used in the Nazis’ search, for years, and Gestapo intelligence agent Major Arnold Ernst Toht was brought in to question her. However, as he did so to no avail, at the exact time American archaeologist Indiana Jones, Egyptian excavator Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir and eleven hired Arabic diggers including Sallah’s brother-in-law Omar dug up the Ark from the Well of the Souls which they had discovered separately, but soon they were stopped and the Nazis took the Ark for themselves, sealing the American archaeologist and Marion inside the Well and taking the native diggers captive.

With the American threat neutralised and the Ark in their possession, the Nazis prepared to fly it to Berlin, Germany aboard the jet plane Flying Wing. However, shortly after an inspection of the plane by Gobler, the jet was destroyed by an escaped Jones and Ravenwood, and the Ark was instead to be transported to Cairo by a Mercedes-Benz LG3000 cargo truck. Gobler, a Lieutenant and a gunner drove a Mercedes-Benz G5 troop car alongside the truck to protect the Ark, but when Jones showed up and hijacked the truck, Gobler’s car ended up going over a cliff, destroying the vehicle and killing everyone inside.

Under the command of Colonel Dietrich and Frenchman Belloq, Gobler helped his superiors in overseeing the digsite at Tanis. He always stayed by his Colonel’s side, following him around constantly to the extent that Belloq suspected that he may have even annoyed Dietrich.[1] After Nazi Gestapo intelligence agent Major Arnold Ernst Toht failed to gain the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra from American bar owner Marion Ravenwood at her bar, The Raven, in Patan, Nepal, the Nazis were still able to construct a replica of the relic using a burn-print on Toht’s palm from picking up the heated headpiece during a gunfight with American archaeologist Indiana Jones over it, and the headpiece was used to construct the Staff of Ra and locate the Well of the Souls from the Tanis Map Room.[2]

However, the Nazis had only replicated half of the headpiece, and therefore had read only a portion of the instructions on it and constructed the staff too long, meaning that they were digging for the Ark in the wrong place. As a result of their failure, Belloq and Dietrich argued over who was responsible for the Führer’s disappointment as Gobler walked with them through the vast German presence at Tanis. As the trio reached a group of native Egyptians digging within the Nazi site, after Belloq insisted that the Ark was still waiting to be found, Gobler suggested that the captive Marion Ravenwood could help, considering that she had been in possession of the headpiece for years. Despite Belloq’s protests, Dietrich convinced him that he had the perfect man for this kind of work: Major Toht.[2]

Before Toht, Dietrich and Gobler were to interrogate Ravenwood, Belloq, a servant and a guard visited her in his tent, and the Frenchman attempted to get the information the Nazis sought from her before the others arrived and used more painful methods of extraction on her. However, after Marion insisted that she knew nothing of the matter and owed no allegiance to Jones, Belloq had her put on a dress and ended up participating in a drinking game with her alone. When Dietrich, Toht and Gobler arrived at the tent, Marion was holding a knife and backing away from a drunken Belloq to make her escape, only to bump into Toht. Marion leapt away, recognising the agent, and cowered behind Belloq as he rather sinisterly handed his coat to Gobler who placed it on a hanger. As Toht sat down opposite Belloq and Marion, Dietrich sat on a table opposite them and Gobler watched from the entrance to the tent.[2]

However, despite their best efforts, the Nazis were unable to gain any information from Marion, and left her in the tent. Whilst walking away, Belloq noticed Indiana Jones, his friend Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir and eleven native diggers including el-Kahir’s brother-in-law Omar, lifting the Ark out of the Well of the Souls on several ropes. By the time Sallah and the Ark were both out of the cavern and Jones was the only one still inside, the Nazis had surrounded and shut down the operation, captured Sallah, Omar and the rest of the diggers and taken the Ark. Gobler was among the soldiers who watched Belloq torment Jones, and, much to the Frenchman’s dismay, Toht dumping Marion into the pit, causing an argument between Belloq and the Germans as the Well was sealed shut.[2]

It was soon arranged for the Ark to be transported from Tanis to the Führer in Berlin, Germany aboard the jet plane Flying Wing from an airstrip commanded by a German mechanic and officer at the digsite. Shortly before the ancient relic was to be taken out of Egypt, Gobler was driven to the airstrip in a jeep to inspect it, before being taken back to the main Nazi tent to report back to Dietrich. However, the plan backfired when Jones and Ravenwood both escaped from the Well of the Souls and ended up blowing up the Flying Wing before the Ark was loaded upon it.[2]

Following the Flying Wing's destruction, Colonel Dietrich decided that the Ark would instead be transported from Tanis to Cairo by truck, ordering Gobler to arrange plenty of protection. With Jones' location unknown, Gobler watched as fourofhismen carried the Ark into the back of a Mercedes-Benz LG3000 cargo truck, before getting inside themselves to protect the relic along with two othermen and a Sergeant, with twoother men in the front of the vehicle. The vehicle was protected by a Mercedes-Benz G5 troop car driven by Gobler, containing a Lieutenant who sat in the passenger seat and the gunner in the back, behind which was a motorcycle and sidecar helmed by a driver and his passenger. As he entered the troop car, Gobler put on his goggles.[2]

The desert convoy on the move.

Soon, the truck, jeep and sidecar began moving, following a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 320 carrying Colonel Dietrich, Major Toht, Belloq and their driver. All seemed to be going well as the convoy's journey through the desert began, but Indiana Jones promptly appeared behind the truck riding an Arabianstallion. Gobler's gunner began peppering Jones with gunfire, but both he and his horse made it to the truck and the American leapt onto the vehicle. Opening the door at the front of the truck, he hurled its front passenger out into the desert, before hopping inside and wrestling the driver. Their brawl caused one soldier to fall out from the back of the truck into the troop carrier's windshield, smashing it. The soldiers in the back struggled to remain inside the truck as it rocked back and forth from the fight, even going right through a construction site and destroying it, which provided a distraction allowing Jones to toss the driver out of the vehicle and over a cliffside.[2]

The Mercedes-Benz G5 falling to its destruction and the deaths of its passengers.

With Gobler still at the wheel, the troop carrier drove forwards to level with the truck in an effort to allow their gunner to shoot the archaeologist, who was now driving the vehicle. However, Jones rammed into the jeep and knocked it off course into a forest. When the motorcycle and sidecar did the same thing, the truck swiftly knocked the vehicle fully over easily, but as he did the troop carrier stumbled back onto the road and made another attempt to shoot Jones, only to be bashed into and knocked over a cliff to its destruction and the deaths of its passengers. As the jeep fell, the gunner and Lieutenant each went toppling out of the vehicle, leaving Gobler to tumble about inside it and die as it landed on the rocky ground below.[2]

Gobler was also in charge of many transport and protection-related arrangements, overseeing the preperation of the Flying Wing jet plane when it was to transport the Ark to Berlin, Germany for the Führer. He was also notably a skilled driver, taking the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz G5 troop car used to defend the Mercedes-Benz LG3000 cargo truck containing the Ark during AmericanarchaeologistIndiana Jones’ attempt to apprehend it. However, he was no match for Jones, and ended up being knocked over a cliffside to his doom.[2]

The scene in which Gobler's Mercedes-Benz G5 troop car drives over the cliff was an ILM effects shot using a matte painting as the backdrop, and composite shots of a vehicle model and puppets.[4] However, airings of Raiders of the Lost Ark in the United States of America and the Sci-Fi Channel appear to have redone the shot of Gobler's troop car falling down the chasm as CGI. This wasn't done for the 2008 DVD release of Raiders, and there has been no official comment from Lucasfilm Ltd. or Paramount Pictures.